Cavs coach admits playing Love despite knee injury

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue was aware of Kevin Love's injury but still played him last week.

The Cleveland Cavaliers learned NBA All-Star power forward Kevin Love would likely miss six weeks after undergoing knee surgery on Tuesday, and head coach Tyronn Lue was aware of the issue.

Not only was Lue aware of Love's knee pain, he knew the 28-year-old's knee contained "loose bodies," yet played him against the Oklahoma City Thunder last week anyway.

"It was already [hurt], loose bodies were already in there so he just played through it and then after it got to a certain point he got the MRI and he found out it was loose bodies floating around," Lue said Wednesday, via cleveland.com, before the Cavs' matchup against the Indiana Pacers.

Before playing Oklahoma City, Lue mentioned he would "likely" rest all three of his stars - Lebron James, Kyrie Irving and Love - but all three played for the reigning champions.

Lue mentioned that he did not regret suiting Love up for the game because he was "headed for surgery anyway".

Love scored 15 points with 12 rebounds in the 118-109 loss.

With Love out of the line-up, James and Irving will have to carry the load in a recently stacked Eastern Conference. Channing Frye is starting in Love's place.

James, who is tied for the NBA lead with minutes at 37.6 minutes per game, could see more rest down the stretch to ensure his legs are still fresh in the postseason.